Friday, 31 May 2013

Making Do ......

Making do is something I've always been good at, thinking quickly and reassessing things something you learn when you're in retail management and luckily it translates well to my new 'career' that of smallholder and veggie grower.

When the greenhouse came down things were quickly relocated to their new temporary homes. The tender seedlings spent their first few nights under plastic cloches getting used to the cooler utility room ...

... now they've acclimatised they are without their plastic tops and sat next to the open door during the day.

They've all survived as far as I can see.

Outside the window on the patio is the new working area for planting and potting on, simply the long bench from the greenhouse, altered and strengthened by Lovely Hubby. Under the black plastic is my compost tray, I mix two types of compost for seed planting. John Innes seed compost and multi purpose about one third of the former and two thirds of the latter is my preferred (and cheaper) way of doing things, mixed together and then left to dry out slightly before being trowelled into toilet roll tubes or plant pots and the seeds added.

Today is a day for catching up, I've been away all week looking at properties with my lovely Mum, who's also house hunting, she's found a beautiful modern flat that we're hoping will be her new home. So it's all plants and properties for me at the moment. But today I am taking a step back from both and having a good sort out ready for this weekends car boot sale, it's good to clear the clutter and we are almost there. The forecast (up to now), is good for Sunday so I want to have everything ready to load up the truck tomorrow. Today will be sorting and stacking the boxes and then tomorrow will be baking more chocolate muffins.

I have even sorted through all the food stuffs we have and the things we have decided we do not want to eat are being sold to add some money back into the £2 House Keeping tin.

I've just updated the £2 HouseKeeping Challenge page as it's the last day of May, where has this year gone to it's whizzing by!!

My tomato plants are basking in hot temps out on the drawbridge...not a real drawbridge but it looks like one,so drawbridge it is. Poor things are not growing very quickly..I'm hoping the heat will give them a boost.Jane x

This is my Blog, just me writing about our day to day life on a hillside in North Wales. Along with our dogs, Suky and Mavis, our cat Ginger .... who secretly thinks he's one of the canine gang ... and a roving band of egg laying chickens that live cheek by jowl with the local wildlife.

We grow our own fruit and vegetables, selling surplus plants and edibles at the gate. We sell the eggs the chickens lay, we reuse, recycle and rethink ... and life ticks over at a pace that suits us.

It is simply the wild and wacky ramblings of a 50 something townie turned country girl called Sue, who lost her heart to a sailor and started a new life in the country .... over nine years ago. On a path that took us from Cumbria to Oxfordshire, to Berkshire and then we found our home at the bottom of a wet and windy Welsh hillside by a busy main road.

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee and relax into a world of dogs, cats, chickens, the occasional grass munching sheep ... and some pretty delicious vegan foods ... oh did I mention that I don't actually eat the eggs!!

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Disclaimer

Our New Life in the Country is my blog.

I use it to chart the day by day, week by week, year by year goings on in mine and Lovely Hubby's life. In it I also express my views and opinions, and say what I do andoccasionally how I do it. I am hoping that this will prove to be a useful reminder for myself of how we did things, as we continue in our learning process.

If you chose to follow my practices it is assumed that you will do so with care and consideration, and question where necessary any methods or techniques I use to your own satisfaction and match them to your own circumstances.

The pictures in each blog post are taken by me unless otherwise credited, and as such should not be borrowed and used elsewhere without my consent.